Your connection with Grad studies at Queen's

TAX TIME (ahrg!)

I had a great, carefree weekend in Montreal. We wandered the streets, ate great food, and went to see a fabulous modern dance performance choreographed by Marie Chouinard (superb dancing!). We travelled by train, meaning that even the getting-there part of the journey was fun and relaxing.

It’s amazing how even a quick overnight jaunt can feel like forever when you’ve got nothing you HAVE to do and (this is the secret, I think) you untether yourself from the internet. Time feels like it stretches on forever in the best way.

Waking up Monday morning, however, is less fun after you’ve been away. The daily grind (and its accompanying TO-DO list) seem decidedly less fun after you’ve been schedule free (and pretending that you really can afford the nice dinner and show tickets).

Still, I hauled myself out of bed today and tried to turn my attention to the many things wanting attention. Then halfway through the afternoon I decided to really push myself and tackle one of the least pleasant tasks on the list: TAXES. Ugh. Gathering up receipts and tallying up numbers is never my idea of a good time. But trying to do it on a sunny Monday afternoon was probably asking for it.

While I DID manage to gather everything up and enter a few numbers into Ufile (grad students – we get to use Ufile.ca for free through the Canadian Federation of Students — it’s DEFINITELY the way to go if you’re going to be filing your own taxes this year. It’s all done online, and is a relatively painless process, as far as these things go. You can get an access number through the SGPS).

I guess as a student, there is a bright side to doing taxes though: because of all the tuition we pay, we’re usually entitled to a refund — a nice reward after the laborious process of doing the work. And really, if you can see it as that – a process with a reward, that doesn’t require producing original work or mulling over complicated texts – then really, maybe taxes aren’t that bad after all?

If you haven’t started your taxes yet, never fear: you’ve still got plenty of time. I just figured I’d get the ball rolling on mine before things get even more hectic. gah!